Decalcomania



'pril 1l, 1939. 1 B,V CARR ET AL 2,154,198

DEGALCOMANIA Filed A pril 8, 1937 605/? 557 W55 555m/ 5 //vff/ 605 6057 05 Hmz/f5 if Patented Apr. il, i939 PATENT oEFlcE DECALCOMANIA John a. om, neu-oit, man., ma nai-ry c.

Bathke, Chicago, lll., assignors to The Meyercord Company, a corporation of Illinois Application April 8, `193,7, Serial No. 135,668

' 5 claims. (ci. 413s The usual decalcomania is printed on a gum `coated paper whichmust be made wet when `transferring the ink film in order to remove the paper. A considerable part of the gum remains ony the transferred illm and must be washed off. Furthermore, in applying the ink film to the surface where it is to remain, it is customary to employ an adhesive material which must be'allowed to dry before an ink illm can be subjected to a polishing operation, for example. It has heretofore evenbeen necessary to prime or iill some types of surfaces as, for-example, the face of a wood panel, and permit its drying before the application of a transfer thereto. Thus, the applying of an ordinarytransfer not only requires a considerable number of operations, but an objectionable amount of time must elapse between the beginning and the completion of a job. vThus, for example, in the finishing of panels, it may be necessary to have on hand,

undergoing the process of being faced with transfer films, a supply that it will take several days to consume. This,` of course, not only ties up considerable capital, but a large space is required to store the panels undergoing the initial decorative treatment.

The object of the present invention is to produce a decalcomania which may be applied, without the use of water, extraneous adhesives er sizing or priming coats, by the mere act of laying them on the surface on which they are to be mounted, subjecting them to moderate heating and pressure, and then strippingor pulling off the paper backing, whereby the process of 5 mounting is greatly simplified and the decoratedr product becomes immediately ready for a finishingcoat, if desired, and such .working of the product as may be desired.

In carrying out our invention, the lm to be 40, transferred is built up on a suitable backing; usually of paper, having thereon a coating w `has very little ainity for the inks or other materials of which a nlm is composed. Then, when the film` is transferred and is firmly adhering to the surface on which it is to remain permanently, the backing with its coating is easily stripped from Ythe film, without wetting the backing and without the necessity of washing the transferred iilm after the backing has been removed. We

. 50 also employ such a composition for the film, or

provide it on its exposed face with a layer ,of the proper material, to enable us to bond the film successfully to bare wood, metal and other materials by simply pressing the decalcomania 55 against the same while heating it sufficiently to render the back of the film or coating on the back of the film somewhat tacky. Only moderate heat and a comparatively light pressure are required. Thus, in the case of iiat panels. for example, the bonding of the lm to a panel 5 is brought` about by simply laying the decalcomania upon the panel, with the exposedk face of the film in contact with the latter, and passing the assembly through hot rollers; the rollers smoothing the decalcomania so as to cause it to 10 lie flat on the panel and, at the same time, supplying the requisite amount of heat and pressure. Of course, the work may be done in a hot press. It' takes but a fraction of a minute to bond the iilm to the panel, and not any longer to strip off l5 the backing and thus leave the panel ready for its intended use and further finishing, if desired.

'I'he various features of novelty whereby our invention is characterized will hereinafter be pointed out with particularity in the claims; but, 20 for a full understanding of our invention and of its objects and advantages, reference may be had to the following detailed description taken in connection with the accompanying drawing. wherein: 25

Figures 1, 2 and 3 represent diagrammatically several different compositions ofA decalcomania embodying the present invention.

In order to make possible the bonding of a transfer ilm to a surface that is unsized and dry, 30 without interposing any adhesive between the iilm and such surface, it is necessary that the nlm to be transferred contain in its exposed face material which will possess the proper characteristics to effect a bond. Certain resinous materials, properly formulated, are suitable for this purpose. These resinous materials may be in the binder for the pigments in the case of a pigmented film, or they may constitute a coat on the side of the film which is exposed while the film 40 remains on its backing or carrier. Lacquers that are commonly employed in the manufacture of certain types of transfer films are not suitable for making a successful bond in accordance with the present invention: but, since it may be de- 4 sirable to employ lacquer Lin the body ofa transfer film, this maybe done provided a resinous coating can be effectively bonded to or integrated with the body of the iilm. In accordance with Y one feature of our invention, we have produced a resinous compound which is compatible with or has a strong ailinlty for lacquer and may therefore be utilized as a coating for a lacquer film and to bond the illm to the surface on which it 'is to be mounted. This resinous compound 55 has urne ammty for the gum usually employed l as a coating on decalcomania paper, so that if used as the binder for the pigments, the printing may be done directly upon ordinary decalcomania paper which will strip oil easily without first dissolving the gum. Where the body of the nlm is of the lacquer type, the lacquer will adhere so strongly to the gum if printed directly thereon, that th gum must be dissolved. To avoid this, we print such a lm upon a coating composed of.. a material with which the lacquer has little aiiinity, and we have produced for this purpose a second resinous composition. This composition is employed in lieu of the gum coating; and, since the backing sheet need not be absorbent when it is not required to soak up water in order to dissolve a coating thereon, any

smooth paper on which printing may be done properly serves our purpose.

A typical formula for the rst of the resinous.

compositions referred to above, to which we shall refer as Formula A, is as follows: A

Six pounds of "phenac resin' is dissolved in suiiicient Dipentine which is a substance. similar to high-flash naptha, and dibutyl phthalate to make two gallons; the quantity of dibutyl phthalate being only about one-tenth that o the "Dipentine; i i

Three pounds of ethyl cellulose, three gallons of toluol, and one gallon of dibutyl alcohol are brought together in a second mixture.

When the two mixtures or batches have been thoroughly digested, they are mixed together,

and the resulting compound is ready for use.

Phenac is the trade name of a synthetic resin of the phenolic type and provides not only the resinous ingredient in the formula, but also gives to the composition body which would otherwise be lacking. i

A typical formula for the second of the resinous compositions, to which we shall refer as Formula B, is as follows: one pound of vinyl; two pounds of ketone; two pounds of toluol; one-eighth pound of dibutyl phthalate. In this formula the ingredients are, in the order named, respectively the resin, the solvent, a diluent, and

, a plasticizer.

In Figure l of the drawing there is illustrated diagrammatically andecalcomania in which the body of the iilm contains lacquer as a binder. In this gure, I represents a sheet of paper which may conveniently be so called enamelled paper. The paper is coated on one side, as indicated at 2, with a layer of material corresponding to Formula B. The color lm contains lacquer as a binder. On top of the color film is a layer of material corresponding to Formula A. The lacquer does not adhere to the layer 2 but has such an affinity for the Imaterial in layer I that the layers 3 and 4 may be said to be integral with each other. Thus, the composite film comprising the layers 3 and 4 may easily be separated from the backing and its coating, by simply pulling them apart.

In Fig. 2, 5 is a coating of gum or lacquer on the paper sheet I, and 6 is the color film in which the binder is in accordanceA with Formula B. There may or may not be an additional layer'l upon the layer 6; but, if so, the material of this additionallayer should correspond to Formula B. Since the material of Formula B has very little affinity for either lacquer or the gum coating on ordinary decalcomania paper, the lm may be printed directly on ordinary gum coated decalcomania paper or upon paper of any kind that has been coated with lacquer.

In Fig. 3 the binder in the transferable lm i corresponds to Formula A, and therefore, the coating on the paper I may be either the gum found on the ordinary decalcomania paper or a material corresponding to Formula B. In this instance the coating on the paper must not be lacquer, because the material of Formula A will unite with the lacquer if printed thereon, although it will not unite with a coat or layer of Formula B material. i l

It will thus be seen that we have made it possible to apply any one of a number of different types of decalcomanias directly to a dry, hard surface, without the use of cements or thelike, or requiring any filling, sizing or priming; and, what is just as important, making it unnecessary to wet'thedecalcomania or to have resort to cleaning processes for the color film at the end of the transferring operation. Of course, the transfer may be eiected by securing the ink film to a surface by means of cement or other adhesive material, if that be desired; in which case the removal of the backing may still be accomplished Iyuimply stripping the dry backing from the ink While we have described specifically only a few preferred types of decalcomanias, and given preferred formulae for certain of the compositions employed inthe manufacture thereof, we do not desire to be limltedthereto; but, in addition to the specific things disclosed in detail, we intend to cover all decalcomanias and methods embodying the principle of our invention as set forth in the definitions of the latter constituting the appended claims.

We claim:

1. A decalcomania comprising a backing having thereon a coating composed mainly of vinyl resin `and a plasticizer, together with a lm to be transferred overlying the said coating; that part of the lm in contact with said coating being composed of lacquer having little ainity for the latter, whereby the backing and its coating may be stripped from the film, in a dry state, in transferring; and the exposed face of the film being largely 4composed of phenac resin and ethyl cellulose and having a strong affinity for said lacquer and giving to the illm the capacity to be adhered firmly to a surface when engaged directly with the latter, inV a dry state, and pressed against the same by means of a heated pressure device. q

2. A decalcomania comprising a backing having thereon a coating composed mainly of vinyl resin and a plasticizer, together with a film to be transferred overlying the said coating; said film being composed mainly of phenac resin and ethyl cellulose and having little afiinity for the material in the coating, whereby the backing and its coating may be stripped from the film, in a dry state, in transferring; and the exposed face of the film being composed of materials that give to the film the capacity to be adhered firmly to a surface when engaged directly with the latter, in a dry state, and pressed against the same by means of a heated pressure device.

3. A decalcomania comprising a backing having thereon a coating composed mainly of vinyl resin and a plasticizer, together with a film to be transferred overlying the said coating; that part of the lm in contact with said coating being composed of lacquer having little affinity for the latter, whereby the backing and its coating 2,154,198 maybe stripped from the lm, in a dry'state, in

transferring.

4. A decalcomania comprising a backing having thereon a coating composed mainly of vinyl resinY and a plasticizer, together with a. lm to be transferred overlying the said coating; said illm being composed mainly of phenac resin and ethyl cellulose and having little anity for the material in the coating, whereby the backing and its coating may be stripped from the lm, in a: dry state, in transferring.

5. A decalcomania comprising a backing having thereon a. coating layer anda layer in the form of a lm to bevtransferred overlying the coating layer; one of said layers being composed mainly of vinyl resin and a plasticizer, and that part of the other layer in engagement therewith being composed of lacquer having little amnity for the vinyl resin; whereby the backing and its coating layer may be stripped from the iilm in a dry state, in transferring.

JOHN B. CARR. HARRY C. RATHKE. 

